Non-Traditional Law Students and Moot Court
Last weekend, Concord Law School students Marjorie Daily and Tom Fleming prevailed in the Regional Competition Rounds of the American Constitution Society’s (ACS) Constance Baker Motley Moot Court Competition, which took place at the University of Michigan Law School. This qualifies them for the National Finals, which will take place at the ACS’s national meeting this summer in Washington, D.C. It is a terrific achievement for two non-traditional, part-time law students who attend our unique and still evolving online law school program.
In a moot court competition students brief and argue a hypothetical case before a panel of judges. It’s a rite of passage in law school, and there are a number of competitions throughout the year where teams from various law schools compete against one another. Students have to work together as a team. Practice makes perfect, and so students in traditional placed-based law schools go through many practice rounds in front of fellow students, faculty, lawyers, and judges to maximize the chances that they will be prepared for any question that the judges in the actual competition might throw at them.
This is one of those activities that skeptics and critics will say can’t be done online. How can the team gel if they aren’t together to practice? How can the students hone their presentational skills if they are not physically standing in front of a judge in a classroom or mock courtroom when they practice? Won’t it be cumbersome and less than satisfactory for students to communicate electronically about their brief, rather than sitting together in a library working on it? And so it goes.
How, then, could it happen that two Concord Law students could succeed in this competition against students from law schools such as the University of Michigan, Duke, Berkeley, Wayne State, and others (there were close to 30 teams entered)?
Certainly a lot of it has to do with the students. Graduates of Air Force Academy and Vanderbilt (with an MBA on top of her undergraduate degree), Tom and Marjorie are accomplished professionals who are now pursuing a law degree. Some of it has to do with good coaching. Most law schools support their moot court teams with a coach from the faculty or the local legal community. We are lucky to have the help of Los Angeles attorney David Glassman, who has more than 20 years of experience as an appellate lawyer and enjoys working with our students.
Could it also be that there’s a solid and rigorous program of legal education at Concord that pushes Marjorie, Tom, and their classmates to learn the law and to learn to “think like a lawyer”? Could it be that the cyber hallways of Concord have the interactivity, collegiality, and professionalism that is in the air in the brick/mortar hallways of traditional law schools? Could it be that the faculty of our online school are providing a level of instruction and insight that helped prepare Marjorie and Tom for the competition that they faced in this competition? Were they just lucky?
Perhaps they were just good. Maybe they were experiencing a program of legal education that was sound, even though it was offered online. This is just one competition. However, as online programs, such as the one we offer at Concord, demonstrate through the successes of students and graduates that they deliver effective courses of study, then maybe the doors will wider to solid programs like ours that expand educational access and opportunity.
Congratulations and thanks, Marjorie and Tom. Good luck in the Finals.
9 Responses to “Non-Traditional Law Students and Moot Court”
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Please push the ABA to re-look at online education. Their website has studies done earlier in the decade (almost a full decade) and online interactions have evolved almost at the same rate as Moore’s law. I am going to be attending Kaplan for my undergrad, but the state I am in won’t accept a degree from Concord. Hopefully by the time I am ready for Law School that will have changed.
Just as Mike has said, the ABA needs to revisit this idea of online legal education. Regardless of the success of two students in this event, (hats off to them) there have been many students from Concord law school who are successful attorneys today. If the ABA does not recognize them, this will only discourage future students from attending Concord law school.
Thanks to both Mike and “machine” for their comments.
The graduates, students, faculty, and staff of Concord prove everyday that a sound program of legal education can be delivered online.
One of our jobs is to help both the legal academy and the legal profession understand what we do and why it works as well as it does. We will continue to work hard and stay focused on this task.
Some students, particularly those who go to law school directly from their undergraduate studies, will continue to prefer a campus-based program. We are focused on the countless other students who, for work or family reasons, cannot feasibly access a traditional program. Others who could attend such programs might prefer a program that is fully online or blended.
We believe that Concord complements and supplements what traditional law school programs offer. When something like the performance of our Moot Court team happens, it confirms the pride that we have in our school and our confidence in its future.
Barry
Bravo! Congratulations to Marjorie and Tom!
It isn’t just other traditional schools that need to update their views on online education, it is also the population as well. I can not tell you how many times I have gotten a strange look when I answer the “where do you go to college” question. I even get the rude comments like online college isn’t really college it is like a free ride. I have been in a traditional school and let me tell you after 3 hours of sitting in class day dreaming because you know you still have to go over the material when you go home online takes the cake. Life is unpredictable and with Kaplan I can take my school where ever I go. It is literally the school working around my schedule and needs. I remember always being stressed in traditional schooling. Everything was closed by 5p and you were not going to get through phone or e-mail and most if not all paper work was due in person and I was a night student. It was plainly an inconvenience and my grades were reflecting it in a traditional community college school I was obtaining D’s and C’s if I was lucky. Here at Kaplan am getting A’s and B’s perhaps traditional schooling can take a few tricks from online schooling.
Currently earning: A.A.S Medical Office Management
June 2009 - The Concord team came in SECOND place at the national competition, second only to Stanford University. BRAVO!
It is about time that the ABA review the “output” side of Concord as they review their accreditation process this year and realize that as Concord students perform at this level, win the rights to take the bar in states such as Mass. and Maryland, they deserve a place at the ABA.
These are students who balance full time jobs, families and school. These are students who have graduate degrees and already excel in their fields.
I graduated with a M.S. in computer science with a 3.85 and am entering Concord this fall. The brick and mortar schools cannot accomodate the fact that I have to continue to work and support my family whiel going to school.
So I too will give Concord my best and someday the ABA will realize it is not the number of seats in a library that makes the school ABA worthy it is the students.
[...] found it more intriguing than ironic. Concord Law School Dean Barry Currier wrote at Rethinking Higher Education: How, then, could it happen that two Concord Law students could succeed in this competition against [...]
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[...] Rethinking Higher Education had an article on distance education and the moot court competition. [...]
I believe when an instructor’s priority is to set the best atmospheric conditions for learning, the student that takes advantage of that setting will succeeds!